Day 1: Check-in with yourself
Day one of the 7 Day Back to You Challenge is intended to give you time to meaningfully reflect. We all spend a lot of time thinking about the tasks that need to get done and the places we need to be. But we never give ourselves enough time to reflect on our emotional needs. Yes, FEELINGS ARE HARD. Sometimes it can be easier to busy yourself with a million to-dos than to just say “I don’t feel like myself.”
So, to help you do a check-in, Day 1 you are asked to rate five areas:
Energy
Stress
Mood
Relationships
Overall satisfaction
Each area is explained in detail below.
Don’t forget to GRAB THE FREE WORKBOOK to work through the daily prompts!
Energy
Do you feel like you are running on empty or that you usually have the energy to get everything done?
I am not talking about being tired when you wake up at 6am (of course you’re tired!). I am talking about the difference between getting things done without thinking about the effort you have to put in (and maybe with the help of a little coffee) and feeling as though getting through your day feels like trudging through mud.
Do you feel completely depleted or full of energy?
1- Completely depleted, everything feels difficult
2- Feel depleted more often than not
3- Average energy, some days are tougher than others
4- Usually have a lot of energy (but maybe could use more sleep)
5- Full of energy almost all of the time
I would also like to add while being a partner, mom, and overall person in the world is definitely EXHAUSTING. It isn’t normal to permanently feel tired. If you feel as though you are always tired, you never feel rested, and you lose energy quickly please talk to your doctor. I have my own personal experience with this that I will share at some point. But just know that physical illness and diagnosable depression are also causes for rating yourself a 1 or 2 for an extended period of time.
Stress
Yes, almost everyone will say they are stressed; we are living in stressful times. Being a woman is hard. Being a mom is hard. Paying bills…is hard. But there is a difference between regular levels of getting through a busy day stress, and regularly waking up feeling a tightness in your chest because you feel you could never possibly get everything done.
Is your stress manageable or do you feel constantly overwhelmed?
1- Constantly overwhelmed
2- Overwhelmed more often than not
3- Average amount of stress/overwhelm, sometimes I feel stress is hard to manage
4- I feel stress but can usually cope with it
5- Stress in my life is very manageable and does not negatively impact me
Mood
As a woman in her 40s, figuring out mood regulation has been an on-going battle (thanks a lot hormones and perimenopause). There were days where I was holding back tears for absolutely no reason and days where I felt unstoppable. You can feel successful and energetic but also be struggling with your daily mood. This is actually an important thing to note and where my “cut it out with the toxic positivity sh*t” comes in. Just because everything in life is manageable and you think you should be happy, doesn’t mean you are…and if you aren’t then we need to figure out why.
Are you feeling good or are you struggling?
1- Really struggling, don’t feel happy
2- Feel unhappy/struggling more often than not
3- I feel ups and downs, some days I am happy and other days I am sad and I don’t know why
4- I feel downs/sadness, but I can manage them and they are less often than my ups
5- I feel good most of the time and don’t feel like I am struggling
Relationships
Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, it is important to reflect on how you are feeling in your relationships. Do you feel connected to those in your life and like you know you have support when you need it? If you are experiencing strain in a relationship or a sense of general disconnection that can be the catalyst for struggling in other areas of life.
First, think about all relationships, not just romantic or immediate family. Those are important but sometimes we forget that there are other areas of social support in our lives that we need and if we don’t get them, we start to struggle. So how are you feeling about your: partner, children, parents, family, friends, co-workers. You can be around people frequently and still feel disconnected. I know the idea of “being present” can be overused, but it does matter.
Are you feeling disconnected or supported in your relationships? This can be about one relationship in particular, or your relationships overall.
1- Disconnected and strained
2- Feel disconnected more often than not
3- Some relationships feel strong but others feel disconnected
4- My relationships are generally strong, I feel more connected than disconnected
5- I feel supported and connected in my relationships
Overall satisfaction
I mentioned toxic positivity earlier. WHen thinking about overall satisfaction do you feel that you are mostly happy with things in your life? We don’t want a “things could be worse” attitude. Because yea, things could almost always be worse, but as I like to say, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t also be better.
So, when you think about your life from a big picture perspective, do you feel satisfied?
1- Very dissatisfied, nothing is where I want it to be
2- Dissatisfied more than satisfied
3- I am satisfied in some areas and dissatisfied with others
4- I feel more satisfied than dissatisfied in life overall
5- I am satisfied with most areas of my life, there isn’t much I would change overall
There are no right answers to any of the questions. This is a very personal exercise. It is intended to make you reflect on YOU and how YOU are feeling.
So which thing did you rate the lowest?
Were there any ratings that were surprising to you?
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